Tallahassee, Fla. – For the last time this preseason the FloridaState football team held a full scrimmage in Doak Campbell Stadium. The two hour scrimmage completed the second-to-last two-a-day of the preseason. The team held a kicking scrimmage in the morning before the full pad scrimmage this evening. The squad will reconvene Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. for a 20 period practice.

AM KICKING SCRIMMAGE HIGHLIGHTS:

Saturday morning’s kicking scrimmage began with some position work before the team spent about two hours working on all aspects of the kicking game.

Preston Parker took a majority of reps on punt return and Chase Walker continues to close in on a punt block as he almost got two Tuesday morning.

The ball moved out to the 35 for the next segment. The second team offense looked pretty good versus the ones. Davis had a short run and then followed that with a nice gain up the middle. Xavier Lee hit Greg Carr for a first down and then fired incomplete on a deep route. Lee then connected with Damon McDaniel on a short screen bringing up third down. The twos kept the drive alive thanks to Joslin Shaw. Shaw made a catch right at the sticks and was drilled by Rolle but held on for the first. After a short gain by Davis and a Guion sack the second team offense faced third down once again, which the offense was unable to convert. That brought Gary Cismesia onto the field to attempt a 50-yard field goal but Dekoda Watson blocked the kick and Korey Mangum returned it for a TD.

The first string offense took their turn from the 35 and looked good to start. Weatherford and Preston Parker combined on a mid-range pass that Parker broke for 34 yards. Edwards followed with a nice gainer and then Benjamin Lampkin stopped Edwards at the line. Weatherford found De’Cody Fagg but the pass was a little up and Fagg could not handle it. Jeremy Franklin was right there to pick it off.

The first team offense moved back to the 35 for a few more plays and another drop hurt them. Weatherford found Preston Parker 20 yards down field but the receiver couldn’t hold on. McDaniel caught an inside screen on the second play bringing up third down. Edwards plunged straight ahead to pick up the first and then Weatherford found Richard Goodman for another first when the drill was halted after the prescribed number of plays.

The threes took their turn next. Joche Norona got a carry for no gain before Christian Ponder hit Jonathan Hannah. Hannah almost couldn’t handle the pass juggling the ball before pulling it in. On third down Ponder and Taiwan Easterling connected but came up just short of a new set of downs. That moved the ball back to the 35 where Dustin Tremellen had a tackle for loss. The biggest play of the day for the offense followed as Ponder and freshman Cameron Wade hooked up on a 46-yard completion. The play was made by Ponder who was rolling out before finding the 6’6″ target down field. A holding call moved the offense back and then an Aaron Gresham QB hurry almost forced an incompletion but another great Shaw catch, this one along the sideline, bailed the offense out. Ponder hit Wade again inside but the O was unable to produce points after their eight plays.

The scrimmage moved to the 50-yard line next and the first team defense continued to look stellar. After Davis was stopped for no gain, Lee found Shaw underneath for a first. That was all the offense could get though thanks to Guion. On the next play the tackle got into the backfield and got his hand on the ball as it was being flipped between offensive players on a reverse. He jumped on the fumble he created to end the drive. The two got three more tries from the 50 but two short runs by Davis and a screen pass to Davis did not produce points.

The first team offense got its chance from the 50 next. The series started with Weatherford finding Goodman deep on a 38-yard completion. Neefy Moffett made a nice play almost getting Weatherford in the backfield. Just as Weatherford was throwing Moffett got there to knock the ball loose but it was ruled an incompletion. That kept the drive alive and the ones took advantage. Edwards had a nice run around the end bringing up a third down and manageable play but Weatherford’s pass to McDaniel was just short. With the ball at the five, the offense went for it on fourth and Marcus Sims not only got the first but also scored. With one play left, the ones moved back to the 50 looking for more points. Weatherford aired one out to Parker but the wideout couldn’t hold on to the deep ball.

The scrimmage moved into the two-minute drill next. The first team defense had a great series versus the twos forcing a three and out. The first team offense had a little more success though. Weatherford hit Fagg for a short gain and then Parker on an out. After an incompletion, Weatherford took off and scrambled for a first. The next pass was blocked in the backfield by a leaping Justin Mincey, who also had a great scrimmage. Weatherford completed another short pass before Cismesia was brought on. The senior kicker nailed a 53-yard field goal as time ran down.

After the break the scrimmage moved into situational mode playing more for down and distance. Some of the highlights were Derek Nicholson’s on-armed tackle of Edwards as the back tried to run past Nicholson who was on the ground with a player on top of him. Everette Brown, Justin Mincey and Neefy Moffett had sacks and Dionte Allen got enough of Edwards to bring him down just past the line on the edge. Edwards did break a nice run but Maurice Harris chased him down and saved what looked like it would have been a long TD run. It wasn’t the only big play for Harris. The freshman also got an interception as Kevin McNeil got in on Weatherford and chopped his arm as he was throwing the ball.

In red zone the offense had some success but not on the first drive. An offsides on the defense moved the ball from the 18 to the 13 but Guion moved them right back with a sack. Toddrick Verdell added to the negative yardage with a tackle for loss and then Lee was incomplete throwing into the endzone. The twos then moved up to the five yard line and were able to get a field goal. Lee had an incomplete pass in the end zone and then Edwards was stopped at the one. After a delay of game, Moffett recorded another sack. A penalty moved the ball even further back before Gano hit a 35 yard field goal.

The ones had more success on offense. Edwards had a nice run on first down from the 18 which ended with a huge collision with Maurice Harris. A face mask penalty tacked on five more yards and then Sims pounded it in to the end zone with a run up the middle.

In goal line the second team offense went 1-for-4. Edwards scored a TD on the first play but Rodney Gallon had a big time stop on Sims at the line on the next attempt. From the three yard line Edwards turned in a highlight film run. He was trapped six yards in the backfield but reversed his direction and went across the field and made it around the corner. As he was ready to finish off the spectacular TD run Dekoda Watson came out of no where to save the TD. On the last play Moffett once again made a play tackling the ball carrier behind the line.

The first team offense started slow missing on its first two attempts. Edwards was stopped from the three and Erik Stapleton was stopped from the one. The ones did convert the next two chances though. Weatherford avoided a sack, scrambled and hit Charlie Graham for six and Sims finished the scrimmage off with a one-yard TD.

“The offense moved up and down the field pretty good but the defense did a pretty good job of keeping them out of that end zone except several times. The first drive was a beautiful thing – had about a 55-yard drive down to about the 10 of 15. Force a field goal. Defense blocks it and scores a touchdown. Catching the ball was pretty good.

“I’d like to think we’ve improved out there but it’s going to get down to see where you see you are making mistakes that are costing you drives and stuff like that. I thought it was pretty spirited. I don’t think we had any serious injuries out there; that’s what we have got to keep our fingers crossed there.

“We made all of our kicks today. We had one from 53 yards and had another from 40-something. That’s encouraging. I think Cismesia hit one about 53 and the other guy from one from over 40. I couldn’t tell you the exact distance.”

(on units working during the scrimmage)“He mixed it up. He mixed it up. They will start a one vs. two than he substitute so dang much that its half and half.”

(on the quarterbacks)“I think they are improving. I think they are improving. As I said before, Jimbo will make that decision. I will not answer that question – whatever he wants to say – who is what – is fine with me.”

(on the offensive line)“They did some good things. I saw some good things in there but I also saw a lot of missed assignments or misses. They did some good things.”

(on Antone Smith)“We kept him out of there; he’s got a toe. He’s going to be alright. Big drop off after him. Big drop off after him. At least the other tailbacks are getting a lot of work.”

(on the wide receivers)“The all caught it pretty good. I think that’s one thing we have done pretty consistently this fall is catch the ball.”

(is the team on the pace that you want them to be on?)“I fell like we are as far along as we could be at this time. You are never as far along as you would like to be. I don’t know what else we could do to have gotten further along. Injuries are the only thing that can hold you back. The thing I have seen is improvement event week is the defense. I think they have improved every week.”

Quarterback Drew Weatherford“I thought I did alright. I had a lot of opportunities to make more plays that I did and we didn’t execute. The picks were unfortunate and there really wasn’t much I could do on those. One I got hit as I was throwing and the other – I need to keep the ball down a little bit. The ball was above the receivers head and it got tipped up in the air. There are things I can do on that. There’s definitely a lot of room for improvement.

“They (offensive line) did a good job. They did a good job. We were put in some tough situations on third and long situations which are really tough to pass protect — they know we are going to throw the ball. But for the most part they did a good job with the run blocking and the pass blocking. We had a couple of break downs in protection that we can work on. They did really well.

“We had some opportunities (for passing touchdowns) – we had one in the end zone that was dropped. That should have been a touchdown. We had another one that Preston (Parker) almost broke for a real long touchdown – 65 or 70 yards – he was just one block away from scoring. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Our drives were stopped because we only go so many plays in a row. If our drives were to continue we would be fine.”

Rover Myron Rolle“I think we are very close (to being Clemson ready). We have a good understanding of the defensive concepts. Our offense is progressing every day. Our special teams are getting better – there is still some improvement need to be made on special teams. As a unit, I think we are all piecing it together. This is the last week before we really start game planning for Clemson. This needs to be pretty much a flawless week. That’s the kind of mindset we are taking. That’s what we have tired to do this week so far.”